DOCSLIB.ORG

How Ethnic Kazakhs from China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
How Ethnic Kazakhs from China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? For six months of 2019, over a thousand families of ethnic Kazakhs have moved back from China to their historical homeland. Follow us on Facebook Since birth Oralkhan Aben was living in the county of Durbuljin of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. According to her, it had been rather quiet there for a very long time, but since 2013 the religious citizens have problems with performing salah in mosques. Once we entered the mosque, they recorded our ID data in front of the gates. Later on, we learned they were preparing something terrible then. They blackmailed workers and retired people saying they would not receive their salaries and pensions if they keep attending the mosque. They prohibited the young people to enter the mosque. That was how the policy of ban started. In 2017, everyone whose ID cards had been registered in the mosque was moved to political re- education camps. In addition to religion, the authorities took care of education. The place we lived in closed down the Uygur school long before. They then started to close down Kazakh school, and as far as I know they put Kazakh language teachers to the camp. Those who were not put into the camp were hired as security to Chinese schools. Photo courtesy of Oralkhan Aben Kazakh children started to attend Chinese schools, where they were prohibited to speak Kazakh, and were ordered to speak only Chinese. We worried about the future of our children. The question that concerned us very much was what would be with the succeeding generations if they destroy our religion, our language. “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? Back in August 2016, her husband and she decided to move to the historical homeland. Here she and her three children received citizenship, and her husband was refused due to some issues with his passport. Nevertheless, all the family stayed in Kazakhstan. Northward At first, Beijing denied the existence of political camps, and then called them “centres of professional education” to prevent extremism and radicalism. Late in December last year, the authorities of China invited 12 foreign diplomats, Could China Be Softening Stance on Kazak, Kyrgyz Minorities? By results of the visit, advisor to the ambassador of Kazakhstan in PRC, Manarbek Kabaziev, shared his impression with the Chinese international TV channel, CCTV. He noted that the Chinese government takes care of its citizens by giving them an opportunity to master new professions. According to the Kazakh ministry of labour and social protection, since 1991 136,492 people returned from China to the country. And in six months of 2019, 1,552 people from China got back to the historical homeland and received a status of oralman (ethnic Kazakhs moving to Kazakhstan – editor’s note). “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? According to Atazhurt Yeriktileri organisation, which is actively solving the issues of ethnic Kazakhs in PRC, Kazakhstan does not have to provide housing, jobs or benefits to former citizens of China. Therefore, ethnic Kazakhs don’t get any of these officially. However, they can receive pension if they didn’t receive in back in China. However, a lot of documents need to be provided instead. Back in August, ex-president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev spoke at the party session and called the Kazakhs who returned to their historical homeland to end the “welfare” mentality. “Now they declare some thirty-year-old slogans “Pay to me as I have many children,” “Pay to me as my salary is low.” What were you thinking about? These are your own problems. You didn’t ask the state for advice back then. The state tackles its own tasks and pays. No, pay me more,” Nazarbayev said (as cited by Zakon.kz). However, the state allocates funds for those oralmans who settle down in northern regions of the country, where residents leave, birth rate decreases and net migration rate is always negative. According to Atazhurt Yeriktileri, after oralmans settle down in the north, they get “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? a single payment for housing rent in their first year, 86 thousand tenge (223 dollars) per every family member. For example, if the family consists of five members, the single aid amount will be 430 thousand tenge (a little more than 1.1 thousand dollars). Nevertheless, the majority of returnees have settled down in Almaty region – 29,589 families (73,675 people), East Kazakhstan region – 12,864 families (40,347 people) and in the capital – 3,672 families (6,130 people). Oralkhan Aben with his family lives now in Almaty region in the village of Karabulak. They moved closer to her husband’s relatives. “We didn’t receive [any aid], and we never asked for it. The only thing is that we receive a small disability benefit for our youngest child since this February. We purchased a land plot at our own expense and built a house, but our documents are not ready and we cannot move there. So, we live with my husband’s relatives so far,” she said. The woman found an occasional work as a dishwasher in the village and earns a living alone as her husband cannot work due to health problems and their eldest daughter is a university student. “Now we have some domestic problems. But we are not being a burden to the state as we try to earn ourselves,” Oralkhan added. They ordered us to get divorced Now she is trying to have her mother move back from China to Kazakhstan. According to her, she is confined to her apartment in China. “She is sick and there’s no one to take care of her. Mom wants to come here to us, but they don’t let her out and don’t give her documents back to her. One of the reasons is to keep her silent about what she saw in the camp and went through. We sent her the official invitation. Border officers should return her passport to her when they see the invitation and let her enter Kazakhstan. However, it doesn’t happen so,” Aben said. The woman hopes her family would reunite. Before that, she had been waiting for almost two years for her husband to return from China – in September 2017 he went to his brother’s funeral to Xinjiang and disappeared. “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? Later on, she learned that a passport was seized from her husband when he was crossing the border when entering China. “They ordered him to get divorced. In July 2018, they allowed him to contact me for this purpose. He said he was getting divorced without explaining the reasons. I was not ready for the divorce, so I refused to. I felt something was Courtesy of Oralkhan Aben with her spouse and children wrong,” the woman recalled. In September 2018, her husband was arrested. According to Oralkhan Aben, he was questioned even at 2-3 am and asked why he moved his family abroad. She filed complaints to the Kazakh parliament, foreign ministry and even president. She asked them to help her get her husband back and reunite their family. After numerous letters and complaints, her husband was finally released. He got back to Kazakhstan February this year. “His health got worse – because of constant beatings and tortures, he cannot hear, his kidneys are damaged, liver and heart have enlarged, stomach got infected. He was threatened not to tell anything to his family about what happened to him. He was threatened so much,” said the wife of the prisoner in the Xinjiang camp. They threatened him not to tell anything to his family about what happened to him. In April 2018, the law enforcement bodies of XUAR detained and sent the elderly mother of Oralkhan Aben to the camp. “She is 70 years old and despite her age, she was detained in the camp for traveling to Kazakhstan and for reading the namaz. However, they provided no official documents of her sending for political re-education. I found out about [detention] 16 days later. I didn’t know anything about her situation. Other people told me some scarce information. In July of that year, she underwent surgery on her gallbladder. And 15 days after the treatment, she was returned to the camp,” Aben said. A few months after the arrest of his mother, the younger brother of Oralkhan hanged “Not Being a Burden to the State.” How Ethnic Kazakhs From China Who Came Back to Historical Homeland Live? himself because he couldn’t suffer the oppression. “On the day of Yerbolat’s death, my mother was allowed to say goodbye to him and was released for only six hours! She was not even allowed to say goodbye to her son in a normal way. Then she was again locked up in the camp. Her condition after the surgery and constant interrogations and conditions of detention got worse. In September, she was put to the hospital, and could not walk. But soon she was sent back to the camp,” Aben said. In December 2018, she was told her mother was released and confined to home arrest. The pain of separated families This March 4, Kazakh foreign minister Beibut Atamkulov announced that the number of ethnic Kazakhs in the camps fell by 80 per cent.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Selected Works of Chokan Valikhanov Selected Works of Chokan Valikhanov
    SELECTED WORKS OF CHOKAN VALIKHANOV CHOKAN OF WORKS SELECTED SELECTED WORKS OF CHOKAN VALIKHANOV Pioneering Ethnographer and Historian of the Great Steppe When Chokan Valikhanov died of tuberculosis in 1865, aged only 29, the Russian academician Nikolai Veselovsky described his short life as ‘a meteor flashing across the field of oriental studies’. Set against his remarkable output of official reports, articles and research into the history, culture and ethnology of Central Asia, and more important, his Kazakh people, it remains an entirely appropriate accolade. Born in 1835 into a wealthy and powerful Kazakh clan, he was one of the first ‘people of the steppe’ to receive a Russian education and military training. Soon after graduating from Siberian Cadet Corps at Omsk, he was taking part in reconnaissance missions deep into regions of Central Asia that had seldom been visited by outsiders. His famous mission to Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, which began in June 1858 and lasted for more than a year, saw him in disguise as a Tashkent mer- chant, risking his life to gather vital information not just on current events, but also on the ethnic make-up, geography, flora and fauna of this unknown region. Journeys to Kuldzha, to Issyk-Kol and to other remote and unmapped places quickly established his reputation, even though he al- ways remained inorodets – an outsider to the Russian establishment. Nonetheless, he was elected to membership of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and spent time in St Petersburg, where he was given a private audience by the Tsar. Wherever he went he made his mark, striking up strong and lasting friendships with the likes of the great Russian explorer and geographer Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov-Tian-Shansky and the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
    [Show full text]
  • Koshymova Aknur the Role of Oghuzes in the VIII-XIII Centuries In
    Koshymova Aknur The role of Oghuzes in the VIII-XIII centuries in the formation of ethno genesis of Turkic peoples ANNOTATION To the dissertation prepared to get PhD degree in “History” – 6D020300 General description of the dissertation. The dissertation paper explores the place of Oghuz in the ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples in the context of the history of the Kazakhs, Azerbaijanis, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Turks. The relevance of the research. The studied problem reflects one of the topical issues that has a peculiar place both in national history and foreign historiography. Due to the antiquity and deep historical roots of the ethnogenetic process of the formation of the late Turkic peoples, the researchers recognized the direct involvement of the Oghuz clans and tribes in the history of the Kazakhs. During the study of the ethnogenesis of a single Turkic people, the process of its formation, development paths and features, you can see how great the role of migration and assimilation processes in the content of ethnic mixing of the autochthonous population and alien tribes, which determined the future ethnic composition, language, culture, and this circumstance allows us to consider this factor as the leading one. Therefore, the history of the Oghuz-speaking peoples who inhabited Central and Asia Minor, the Caucasus, from a modern point of view, must be investigated in close connection with the history of the Kazakh people, which makes it possible to obtain valuable scientific results. The history of the Oghuz originating in the VIII century from the territories of the Mongolian plateau and the northeastern part of modern Kazakhstan, which as a result of mass movements occupied the Syrdarya valley, then the territory of modern Turkmenistan, then Azerbaijan and Anatolia, which led to dramatic changes in ethnic processes in these regions, it is necessary to consider taking into account the historical and genetic continuity.
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Turkic Nations and Their Image on Nature and Human Being (VI-IX Centuries)
    Asian Social Science; Vol. 11, No. 8; 2015 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Medieval Turkic Nations and Their Image on Nature and Human Being (VI-IX Centuries) Galiya Iskakova1, Talas Omarbekov1 & Ahmet Tashagil2 1 Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Faculty of History, Archeology and Ethnology, Kazakhstan 2 Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Faculty of Science, Turkey Correspondence: Galiya Iskakova, al-Farabi Avenue, 71, Almaty, 050038, Kazakhstan. Received: November 27, 2014 Accepted: December 10, 2014 Online Published: March 20, 2015 doi:10.5539/ass.v11n8p155 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n8p155 Abstract The article aims to consider world vision of medieval (VI-IX centuries) Turkic tribes on nature and human being and the issues, which impact on the emergence of their world image on nature, human being as well as their perceptions in this case. In this regard, the paper analyzes the concepts on territory, borders and bound in the Turks` society, the indicator of the boundaries for Turkic tribes and the way of expression the world concept on nature and human being of above stated nations. The research findings show that Turks as their descendants Kazakhs had a distinctive vision on environment and the relationship between human being and nature. Human being and nature were conceived as a single organism. Relationship of Turkic mythic outlook with real historical tradition and a particular geographical location captures the scale of the era of the birth of new cultural schemes. It was reflected in the various historical monuments, which characterizes the Turkic civilization as a complex system.
    [Show full text]
  • Central Asia: Confronting Independence
    THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY OF RICE UNIVERSITY UNLOCKING THE ASSETS: ENERGY AND THE FUTURE OF CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS CENTRAL ASIA: CONFRONTING INDEPENDENCE MARTHA BRILL OLCOTT SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE PREPARED IN CONJUNCTION WITH AN ENERGY STUDY BY THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RICE UNIVERSITY – APRIL 1998 CENTRAL ASIA: CONFRONTING INDEPENDENCE Introduction After the euphoria of gaining independence settles down, the elites of each new sovereign country inevitably stumble upon the challenges of building a viable state. The inexperienced governments soon venture into unfamiliar territory when they have to formulate foreign policy or when they try to forge beneficial economic ties with foreign investors. What often proves especially difficult is the process of redefining the new country's relationship with its old colonial ruler or federation partners. In addition to these often-encountered hurdles, the newly independent states of Central Asia-- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-- have faced a host of particular challenges. Some of these emanate from the Soviet legacy, others--from the ethnic and social fabric of each individual polity. Yet another group stems from the peculiarities of intra- regional dynamics. Finally, the fledgling states have been struggling to step out of their traditional isolation and build relations with states outside of their neighborhood. This paper seeks to offer an overview of all the challenges that the Central Asian countries have confronted in the process of consolidating their sovereignty. The Soviet Legacy and the Ensuing Internal Challenges What best distinguishes the birth of the Central Asian states from that of any other sovereign country is the incredible weakness of pro-independence movements throughout the region.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Editorial Board
    https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2019.76.kazakh FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD KAZAKH DIASPORA IN KYRGYZSTAN: HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT AND ETHNOGRAPHIC PECULIARITIES Bibiziya Kalshabayeva Professor, Department of History, Archeology and Ethnology Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Almaty, Kazakhstan Email: [email protected] Gulnara Dadabayeva Associate Professor, KIMEP University Almaty, Kazakhstan Email: [email protected] Dauren Eskekbaev Associate Professor, Almaty University of Management Almaty, Kazakhstan Email: [email protected] Abstract: The article focuses on the most significant stages of the formation of the Kazakh diaspora in the Kyrgyz Republic, to point out what reasons contributed to the rugged Kazakh migration process in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how it affected the forms and types of their settlements (compact or disperse). The researched issues also include the identification of factors provoked by humans and the state to launch these migrations. Surprisingly enough, opposite to the claims made by independent Kazakhstan leadership in the early 2000s, the number of Kazakhs in Kyrgyzstan wishing to become repatriates to their native country is still far from the desired. Thus the article is an attempt to find out what reasons and factors influence the Kazakh residents’ desire to stay in the neighboring country as a minority. To provide the answer, the authors analyzed the dynamics of statistical variations in the number of migrants and the reasons of these changes. The other key point in tracing what characteristic features separate Kazakhs in Kyrgyzstan and their kinsmen in Kazakhstan is the archival data, statistical, historical, and field sources, which provide a systematic overview of the largely unstudied pages of the history of the Kazakh diaspora.
    [Show full text]
  • Zhanat Kundakbayeva the HISTORY of KAZAKHSTAN FROM
    MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN THE AL-FARABI KAZAKH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Zhanat Kundakbayeva THE HISTORY OF KAZAKHSTAN FROM EARLIEST PERIOD TO PRESENT TIME VOLUME I FROM EARLIEST PERIOD TO 1991 Almaty "Кazakh University" 2016 ББК 63.2 (3) К 88 Recommended for publication by Academic Council of the al-Faraby Kazakh National University’s History, Ethnology and Archeology Faculty and the decision of the Editorial-Publishing Council R e v i e w e r s: doctor of historical sciences, professor G.Habizhanova, doctor of historical sciences, B. Zhanguttin, doctor of historical sciences, professor K. Alimgazinov Kundakbayeva Zh. K 88 The History of Kazakhstan from the Earliest Period to Present time. Volume I: from Earliest period to 1991. Textbook. – Almaty: "Кazakh University", 2016. - &&&& p. ISBN 978-601-247-347-6 In first volume of the History of Kazakhstan for the students of non-historical specialties has been provided extensive materials on the history of present-day territory of Kazakhstan from the earliest period to 1991. Here found their reflection both recent developments on Kazakhstan history studies, primary sources evidences, teaching materials, control questions that help students understand better the course. Many of the disputable issues of the times are given in the historiographical view. The textbook is designed for students, teachers, undergraduates, and all, who are interested in the history of the Kazakhstan. ББК 63.3(5Каз)я72 ISBN 978-601-247-347-6 © Kundakbayeva Zhanat, 2016 © al-Faraby KazNU, 2016 INTRODUCTION Данное учебное пособие is intended to be a generally understandable and clearly organized outline of historical processes taken place on the present day territory of Kazakhstan since pre-historic time.
    [Show full text]
  • Resettlement of Kazakhs in China in the 20-30S of the XX Century
    Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana ISSN: 1315-5216 ISSN: 2477-9555 [email protected] Universidad del Zulia Venezuela Resettlement of Kazakhs in China in the 20-30s of The XX Century MEIR YESKENDIROV, MEIR; TOKISHKADYROV, BOTABEK; BAYSSARINA, KYMBAT; IBRAYEMOVA, MAIRA Resettlement of Kazakhs in China in the 20-30s of The XX Century Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana, vol. 25, no. Esp.10, 2020 Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela Available in: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=27964799044 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4155765 This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. PDF generated from XML JATS4R by Redalyc Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana, 2020, vol. 25, no. Esp.10, Noviembre, ISSN: 1315-5216 2477-9555 Artículos Resettlement of Kazakhs in China in the 20-30s of e XX Century Reasentamiento de kazajos en China en los años 20-30 del siglo XX MEIR MEIR YESKENDIROV DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4155765 Shakarim University of Semey, Kazajistán Redalyc: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa? [email protected] id=27964799044 http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7211-6342 BOTABEK TOKISHKADYROV Shakarim University of Semey, Kazajistán [email protected] http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7402-1590 KYMBAT BAYSSARINA Shakarim University of Semey, Kazajistán [email protected] http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1711-8294 MAIRA IBRAYEMOVA Shakarim University of Semey, Kazajistán [email protected] http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6776-5505 Received: 28 August 2020 Accepted: 29 October 2020 Abstract: is article describes the historical aspects of the resettlement of Kazakhs from eastern Kazakhstan in China.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Historian Su Beihai's Manuscript About the History Of
    UDC 908 Вестник СПбГУ. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2020. Т. 12. Вып. 4 Chinese Historian Su Beihai’s Manuscript about the History of Kazakh People in Central Asia: Historical and Source Study Analysis* T. Z. Kaiyrken, D. A. Makhat, A. Kadyskyzy L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, 2, ul. Satpayeva, Nur-Sultan, 010008, Kazakhstan For citation: Kaiyrken T. Z., Makhat D. A., Kadyskyzy A. Chinese Historian Su Beihai’s Manuscript about the History of Kazakh People in Central Asia: Historical and Source Study Analysis. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, pp. 556–572. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2020.406 The article analyses the research work of Chinese scientist Su Beihai on Kazakh history, one of the oldest nationalities in Eurasia. This work has been preserved as a manuscript and its main merit is the study of Kazakh history from early times to the present. Moreover, it shows Chinese scientists’ attitude to Kazakh history. Su Beihai’s scientific analysis was writ- ten in the late 1980s in China. At that time, Kazakhstan was not yet an independent country. Su Beihai drew on various works, on his distant expedition materials and demonstrated with facts that Kazakh people living in their modern settlements have a 2,500-year history. Although the book was written in accordance with the principles of Chinese communist historiography, Chinese censorship prevented its publication. Today, Kazakh scientists are approaching the end of their study and translation of Su Beihai’s manuscript. Therefore, the article first analyses the most important and innovative aspects of this work for Kazakh history.
    [Show full text]
  • Azerbaijan – Kazakhstan Relations: Current Situation and Prospects1
    DOI : 10.14746/pp.2017.22.3.11 Rusif HUSEYNOV ThePoliticon.net, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan – Kazakhstan relations: current situation and prospects1 Abstract: Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan should not be seen as two states which are close because of their Soviet past. In fact, the titular ethnic groups of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs – come from a greater Turkic family. Azerbaijani-Kazakh brotherhood takes its roots from the very origins of the Turkic peoples that spread from the Altai Mountains and has been cemented by the Islamic factor. Maintaining maritime borders through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are important nations for one another. Azerbaijan is seen as a bridge for Kazakhstan to access Turkey and Europe, while Kazakhstan offers Azerbaijan routes to Central Asia and China. The two countries attach great importance to their mutual relations, both bilateral and within vari- ous international organizations. These relations have only increased and not experienced any downturns or problems in the past 25 years. Kazakhstan recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which is an important deal for Azerbaijan in its current conflict with neighboring Armenia. The countries even reached an agreement on the legal status of the Caspian Sea quite rapidly, while similar accords are still absent with other littoral countries. They are both interested in developing an East-West transport and energy corridor, enjoying a favorable geopolitical location that could serve as a bridge between the continents. Key words: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Aliyev, Nazarbayev, Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkic, Caspian, oil, Kashagan, Silk Road Introduction n different periods of history, the territories of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were part Iof the same empires, including czarist Russia and the Soviet Union most recently.
    [Show full text]
  • Growing up Soviet in the Periphery
    Growing Up Soviet in the Periphery: Imagining, Experiencing and Remembering Childhood in Kazakhstan, 1928-1953 by Mehmet Volkan Kaşıkçı A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved October 2020 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Laurie Manchester, Chair Agnes Kefeli Adrienne Edgar Anna Holian ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2020 ABSTRACT This dissertation discusses children and childhood in Soviet Kazakhstan from 1928 to 1953. By exploring images of, and for, children, and by focusing on children’s fates during and after the famine of 1930-33, I argue that the regime’s success in making children socialist subjects and creating the new Soviet person was questionable throughout the 1930s. The reach of Soviet ideological and cultural policies was limited in a decade defined by all kinds of shortcomings in the periphery which was accompanied by massive violence and destruction. World War 2 mobilized Central Asians and integrated the masses into the Soviet social and political body. The war transformed state- society relations and the meaning of being Soviet fundamentally changed. In this way, larger segments of society embraced the framework for Soviet citizenship and Soviet patriotism largely thanks to the war experience. This approach invites us to reconsider the nature of Sovietization in Central Asia by questioning the central role of ideology and cultural revolution in the formation of Soviet identities. My dissertation brings together images of childhood, everyday experiences of children and memory of childhood. On the one hand, the focus on children provides me an opportunity to discuss Sovietization in Central Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia'
    H-Russia Kefeli on Ross, 'Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia' Review published on Monday, March 29, 2021 Danielle Ross. Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020. 288 pp. $30.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-04571-3. Reviewed by Agnes Kefeli (Arizona State University)Published on H-Russia (March, 2021) Commissioned by Eva M. Stolberg (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=56424 In Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia, Danielle Ross makes a major contribution to both the history of the Russian empire and to the history of its ethnic and religious minorities. She skillfully argues that the Kazan Tatars were both colonized and colonizers, suffering the consequences of their initial defeat at the hands of Ivan the Terrible in 1552 but also participating actively in Russia's colonial expansion as interpreters, ambassadors, mediators, traders, and settlers. Most important, Ross does not portray them as mere puppets of Russian officials but as allies and, most interesting, as a colonizing force, creating its own spheres of religious and economic influence, its own geography, and its own hierarchies of subjected people. Drawing from a large array of Russian and Turkic-language sources familiar to experts in the field—imperial archives, biographical dictionaries, villages histories, letters, Sufi genealogies, theological works, and literary production—Ross focuses on one group, the Kazan Tatar ulama, and its material-intellectual history from the seventeenth century until the revolutions of 1917.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Culture and Social Change Among the Northern Kyrgyz, 1856-1924
    Visions of Community: Literary Culture and Social Change among the Northern Kyrgyz, 1856-1924 Jipar Duishembieva A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: Elena Campbell, Chair Glennys Young Ali Igmen Program Authorized to offer Degree: Near and Middle Eastern Studies Program ©Copyright 2015 Jipar Duishembieva University of Washington Abstract Visions of Community: Literary Culture and Social Change among the Northern Kyrgyz, 1856-1924 Jipar Duishembieva Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Elena Campbell, Associate Professor Department of History This dissertation examines the transformations in the northern Kyrgyz society and culture between the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. I explore how a deeply-held and territorially-oriented sense of collective belonging among the Kyrgyz developed within the Russian imperial context through the efforts of the Kyrgyz poets and intellectuals during the late tsarist period. I search for this sense of collective belonging in the literary culture of the northern Kyrgyz. In the absence of written culture, oral tradition served as the primary depository of the northern Kyrgyz collective memory. Oral poets were the ones who shaped group identities and created various versions of Kyrgyzness based on culture, lifestyle, religious belief, social practices, and moral values. By the late imperial period, these existing conceptions of Kyrgyzness served as a fertile ground for the first generation of Kyrgyz intellectuals to develop their own visions of Kyrgyz community. They started collecting and writing what they believed to be the history of their people, thus contributing to the creation of the nationalistic narrative and participating in a broader discourse on the nation in the intellectual circles of the Central Asian elites.
    [Show full text]